Tribology is the study of lubrication, friction and wear, which are closely related. Interacting surfaces in relative motion are of interest to science and technology. The chapter provides a comprehensive overview of tribology’s fundamental principles, exploring the interactions between surfaces in relative motion and the significance of friction, wear, and lubrication in these processes. It then delves into the different types of coating materials, such as hard coatings, soft coatings, and lubricious coatings, highlighting their unique properties and mechanisms of action. Alloying, composite structure and soft or hard film coating have all been created to reduce wear and friction. This is accomplished by enhancing surfaces and materials with properties that increase their resistance to wear and friction. Many innovative solid lubricants and contemporary lubrication ideas have been developed in recent years to obtain excellent lubricity and longer wear life in demanding tribological applications. Most conventional solid lubricants are made of ceramic, metal, or polymer-matrix composites, which have proven effective in various technical applications. Through multiplex surface treatments, recent advancements in thin-film deposition methods have created new generations of self-lubricating coatings with composite or multilayered structures. This chapter discusses the usual wear behaviours of representative ceramic, polymeric, metallic alloy and composite materials and their friction behaviours. Furthermore, wear prediction modelling is described. Coating materials are extensively used to reduce friction, wear, and corrosion, improving the durability and efficiency of moving parts in various applications, including automotive, aerospace, and industrial machinery.